Off Wing Opinion

As Don Cherry announced the finalists for the Jack Adams trophy, the video board had three Family Feud-style sections that revealed the nominees. And sandwiched right between Mike Babcock and Guy Charbonneau was Capitals coach Bruce Boudreau.

While both Charbonneau's and Babcock's teams finished with the best records in their respective conferences, and both advanced past the first round of the playoffs, Boudreau can still be considered the top coach in the league.

While Babcock and Charbonneau have had full seasons with star-studded teams, Boudreau took a team of mostly average guys that was 6-14-1 and finished off 37-17-7, including winning their last 7 games to reach the playoffs. Over a full season that would have come out to 108 points for the season. That would have been better than Montreal and only second to Detroit.

The question comes down to "How do you define the best coach?" Is it a coach that keeps a great team running smoothly all season and into the playoffs? Is it a coach that returns a storied franchise to greatness? Or is it a career minor-leaguer that stepped up and turned around the fortunes of a promising team.

I'm just glad I'm not on the voting list. No man is a bad candidate, so it will be exciting to see who comes home with the hardware.

Nothing says bad night like watching the Caps' Game 7 heartbreaker, then going back to my room to write a paper due the next day. I think I'm still recovering. Also, it was a tough loss to swallow, but I would expect more out of Caps fans. I happened to watch the game at the Green Turtle with some friends who are Flyers fans, and twice on the way home Caps fans tried to physically fight them. I'm not grouping everyone in there, but in general it doesn't reflect well. As much as it stinks, you've got to have some class.

Now to wrap the season up On Frozen Blog has the top ten storylines of the season for the Caps. While it might usually be tough to come up with ten notable things, this season was a gold mine for headlines for the Caps. Between Ovie's dominance, McPhee's trade-deadline day pickups, new coach Bruce Boudreau, and the drastic improvement of the team, there was no shortage of things to talk about.

Also, their first round bounce won't be the last hockey played for 8 Caps this season. The World Championships are coming up, and several Caps will be participating. Says Tarik at the Caps Insider;

Mike Green (Canada), Cristobal Huet (France), Tomas Fleischmann (Czech Republic), Nicklas Backstrom (Sweden), Alex Ovechkin, Sergei Fedorov, Alexander Semin and Semen Varlamov (Russia) are all expected to play.

They are all standout talents that deserve to play on the international stage. An added bonus is that with 5 nations represented, there's a solid chance that at least one Cap comes back a champion.

A few blogs, like Japers' Rink and The Peerless Prognosticator are doing post-season breakdowns of all the players. I won't be following suit, as they will do a much better job than I, and I don't have the time at the moment. But right now the theme seems to be centers, so I will make note of it.

The Caps seem set with Backstrom and Nylander as their 1 and 2 centers, and Dave Steckel will be back, presumably with the 4th line. Corey has the offseason depth chart mapped out, and it shows Boyd Gordon and Brooks Laich also looking to center a line, while both are Restricted Free Agents. Add to that a few prospects hoping to make the jump, and the Caps are deep at the pivot spot. And I wouldn't mind seeing Sergei Fedorov sticking around, even in a minimal role. His addition late in the season greatly boosted the team's face-off wins and scoring chances.

Lastly, posts may be scarce the next few weeks. With final papers due and finals themselves this week and next I'll be quite busy. So here's looking back at a good season, looking at the rest of the playoffs, and looking forward to the mini-camps and training camps that will signal the start of next season.

"THEY'RE GONNA DO ONE MORE!"

With everyone extolling the "score first" necessity of last night's game, I don't know if any of us saw the Caps coming back from a 2-0 hole. But watching the rest of the game unfold in a room with both Caps fans and Flyers fans was pure heaven. And how great was it to see Ovie silence the critics and bury a few to lock up the game. Yes their penalty kill was less than stellar to say the least, but for once we can just let that go and celebrate our boys coming back home to try and finish out the series.

Both Poti and Green were slightly injured in last night's game, but, showing just how important tonight is, they are both playing. From Green;

"I wouldn't miss it for the world. They would have to cut off one of my legs."

And to get everyone in the mood, Japers' Rink goes over last night and tonight, and we are again treated to the video of Dale Hunter's overtime winner in Game 7 against, you guessed it, the Flyers.

One game isn't really a big indicator of where this series will go, but the Game 5 effort put forth by the Caps certainly hints at what they are capable of.

Through the first 4 games the Caps were essentially dominated. They stole a win in Game 1, and tried to match the physicality of Philly the rest of the way, but they never really put together a complete game the way the Flyers did.

Saturday, however, saw a different Caps team. They stepped up their play physically and limited the Flyers' scoring chances. With the exception of Hatcher's goal late in the game, the Caps defense was pretty solid. Alexander Semin continued to step up his play, although it'd be nice if he tried something other than the toe-drag every once in a while. The Caps moved the puck well, and did a decent job of staying out of the box.

Now they just have to do the same thing in enemy territory. Game 5 had the Verizon crowd behind the Caps; Philly will be a different story. But as long as the Caps focus on their game they should be fine.

There are a few things the Caps need to keep in mind coming into tonight's game. Corey notes that;

One of the notes passed along by the Caps PR staff is teams that score first are 33-11 in these playoffs, with the team in this series a tidy 5-0. Guess that means the Caps should try to get on the board first tonight.

The Caps Nut believes that "The Flyers will be pumped up playing in front of their home crowd and should be open to counter attacks early on in the game." So the Caps need to take advantage of the Flyers' over-eagerness while preventing them from actually scoring. A tough job I know, but it's what has to be done.

Even the players know how important the start of the game will be, as Tarik has this from Matt Bradley:

"They are going to want to set the tone and get the crowd behind them. We know how they are going to come out, and they're going to come out strong. We have to meet their push. The first period, I think, is going to decide who comes out on top."

So everyone knows what needs to be done tonight. Now they just have to do it. And so for motivational purposes we look to the spectacular jobs of On Frozen Blog and The Peerless Prognosticator, who have dug up just what the doctor ordered to get the boys in red all worked up.

Photo by Kate McGovern.

Photo by Kate McGovern

Well last night certainly felt like a kick in the nuts. The Caps finally showed the grittiness and teamwork that they need to win this series, and they still couldn't come away with the win. They even dent Briere to the box 3 times. Huet played his best game of the series, making a pair of killer saves to keep the Caps going. (Video here, Check the times at 3:23 in and 4:45 in)

But in the end they couldn't put it away. The good news is is that the Caps have come back from down 1-3 to win before. Their opponent? The Flyers. It would be interesting to see if Dale Hunter makes a trip down to the Verizon for tomorrow night's game.

This is a series of conundrums. Ovie is relatively cold while Semin is giving back almost more than he's getting from the physical Flyers. The Philly powerplay isn't hurting the Caps as much as people thought, although it doesn't give the Caps the right to take multiple too many men penalties in one game. But the series is not revolving around the big factors people had predicted.

It all comes down to this: the Caps need to clear out the front of their net. Nearly every goal the Flyers have scored, including all 4 goals last night, have been from between the hash marks or closer. The Flyers are banging away right in front of the net, and chances are pretty good that you're going to bang a few in from that close. The Caps defense needs to step up and clear out that area. One good moment I saw last night was John Erskine pitchforking a Flyer out from in front of the net. You've got to get dirty, but that's how you prevent goals from in close.

Where did the Washington Capitals go? It couldn't have been them that I saw last night. It had to be some sort of hockey team impostors.

For starters, the Caps are just too soft with their passes. If they feather one more D-to-D pass that gets picked off for a goal, I don't know what I'll do. Maybe file a complaint for fraud, because a real hockey team doesn't do that a half dozen times per playoff games. I'd take a crappy dump along the boards and a turnover near their blueline to a cross-ice turnover on our blueline.

I want to dress for the Caps Thursday night. I don't really want to play, I just want to start throwing punches at Biron. If the Flyers run Huet again, I want to see someone, anyone really, on the Caps at the least fight that person, and at the most run Biron in retaliation. And for that matter, do you start Kolzig in Game 4? Huet doesn't exactly have the best save percentage in the playoffs, and Lord knows Olie won't take any of the crap Huet has the past 2 games. It's a tough call, but I imagine one game for Olie would be worth it.

And you have to feel bad for the penalty kill. Against one of the top powerplays in the league the PK has been outstanding, but it has not been matched by the Powerplay. The PP has failed to do much of anything, and it's coming back to bite them in the keister. They move the puck well, but how about we cut the passing chain a few times and rip some shots. Can't score if you don't shot. And I've said it before; I'll take 3-4 decent shots over 1 great shot any day.

The Caps have today to work things out before they hit enemy ice again tomorrow night. Coach Boudreau has his work cut out for him, but hopefully he can patch things up and get his team competing again.

Well yesterday was certainly a disappointment. The Caps couldn't put together much of anything, and they were lucky to just lose 2-0. They tried to do too much on the powerplay, and it ended up costing them. The Caps could barely make tape to tape passes, and instead of trying to improve that they all tried to go through every Flyer by themselves. We all know Mike Green can do work on offense, but let's be real, he's not going to finesse his way through 2 guys and score. Let's just hope he realizes that and doesn't try to do it again Tuesday.

On the plus side Huet was strong in net, allowing only 2 goals on 41 shots. The first was a breakaway that was the fault of the D, and the second was poor backchecking and a bad chip shot rebound by Philly that went over Huet. Also, the penalty kill kept that scary Flyers powerplay off the board, going 5-for-5 on the kill.

The most interesting part of the game, and On Frozen Blog apparently caught on to this too, was when Pierre McGuire mentioned that the arena was nearly half full of Caps fans. This led to quite a bit of confusion as I read blogs from the game about how guys had never seen so few away fans at such a big game at the Verizon. OFB has a nice little vision test to help NBC's man between the glass tell the difference between red and orange. It seems simple enough, but something tells me Pierre would have some trouble with it.

The Caps head to Philly tomorrow for a 7 pm start. Hopefully they can address the problems we saw yesterday, and come out stronger and grittier in the City of Brotherly Love.

Philly's two first period goals were all they needed to defeat the Washington Capitals this afternoon, stopping the Caps' undefeated streak at seven. "We can't expect to come back from a two goal deficit every night, said Goalie Cristobal Huet."

Flyer's head coach John Stevens said this, "I thought our whole team played great."

Cap's Winger Matt Cooke looked at this way, "You gotta beat hot goalies in the playoffs to win. You just have to find ways and that means crashing the net or getting rebounds, you gotta get it done. We had enough opportunities offensively to win the game and we just didn't."

More photos to come, be sure to check out this and other pictures from tonight's game on our flickr page and also our Photoshelter account.

Caps end the first period, down 0-2.

More photos to come, be sure to check out this and other pictures from tonight's game on our flickr page and also our Photoshelter account.

Alex Ovechkin: "We don't panic. We just keep it going, play our way and we gather it up. They beat us first and second period, but third period, we played our game and we don't give them any chances."

Photo by Ellen Blanchard

More photos to come plus be sure to check out this and other pictures from tonight's game on our flickr page and also our Photoshelter account

Photo by Ellen Blanchard

More photos to come plus be sure to check out this and other pictures from tonight's game on our flickr page and also our Photoshelter account

Photo by Ellen Blanchard

More photos to come plus be sure to check out this and other pictures from tonight's game on our flickr page and also our Photoshelter account

Photo by Ellen Blanchard

More photos to come plus be sure to check out this and other pictures from tonight's game on our flickr page and also our Photoshelter account

After what seems like an eternity for Caps fans, their first round series against Philly gets underway tonight. Over the past week we've broken down goaltending, defense, and offense, and the results fail to clear up anything. Both teams play different styles of hockey, but neither really has the advantage in the series. Some pundits have called for the Caps to win the series in 6 or 7 games, while others think Philly will take it.

If anything this will be an exciting series. Both teams do have explosive offenses and quality netminders, which will lead to heaps of scoring chances, and some spectacular saves I'm sure. When asked about the Flyers trying to knock Ovechkin off his game, Boudreau noted that;

"We've seen what happens when he gets into it and plays physical. It doesn't hurt him as much it might hurt other players. Montreal played physical [against him] and he scored four goals. Guys are going to come at him, but I don't want to stop Alex in any way. That's the way he plays."

On an interesting note, Mike Green went down to DC101 radio studios to get a playoff mohawk. I'm not quite sure that will catch on, but there is one other fashion style that the Caps will get to see for the first time in a while: the playoff beard. While some, like Ovechkin, sport the scraggly look normally, it will be fun to see some of the other guys putting a little scruff on.

For some pre-game inspiration, we've got several ideas.

From On Frozen Blog, a montage of the season set to a great song.
A pair of Caps promo videos, with some great tracks (here and here)

And finally, we'll leave you with a simple question from Japers':

"Are you Red-y?"

I know I am...

We all know that the Caps have an explosive offense, and part of their remarkable turnaround has been a jump in goals-per-game. But another big contributor this season has been their defense, which was reinforced with the pickup of Cristobal Huet at the trade deadline. But with both Shaone Morrisonn and Jeff Schultz listed as day-to-day, the Caps are currently with only 4 healthy, regular blueliners - Green, Poti, Erskine, and Jurcina - although some may not count Erskine as any help. And with the offense pretty even, it looks like the series may come down to defense.

Did you get all that?

Morrisonn has been a big loss as he has spent most of the season paired with Green as the top D pairing. In an article by Tarik back in January, Coach Boudreau noted that "Shaone Morrisonn deserves a lot of the credit for allowing Mike Green to do what he's doing. Shaone is the constant security blanket back there." Credit Green and Boudreau for making things work with his mix of new partners, but the lack of Morrisonn out there is still noticeable.

Jeff Schultz has been a solid lockdown defenseman, with a +12 on the season, including being a +6 in the Caps last 12 games. Much like Morrisonn with Green, Schultz' pairing with Tom Poti has allowed Poti to move the puck forward when need be without being a risk.

According to Corey, both Schultz and Morrisonn skated a workout session after the team left the ice today, and may be ready in time for Friday's game.

Both termed their status day to day, but they obviously hope to benefit from the series not starting until Friday. Schultz admitted his status would be dicey if the series started Wednesday night.

If they come back and the Caps have their normal blueliners for the first round, Caps Chick puts the defensive advantage firmly on the Caps' side. The good thing for the Caps is that both Eminger and Lepisto are solid fill-ins, so there shouldn't be any significant drop-off should Morrisonn and Schultz miss a game or two.

So while every other series kicks off Wednesday or Thursday, the Caps can prepare for an extra day, and get an extra night's sleep before suiting up for game 1 in their own building. And what a rocking building it will be.

It's gonna be a long week for Caps fans. To pass the time, you might want to jump over to On Frozen Blog and relive the final week of the Caps' regular season. According the the schedule, the Caps don't kick off until Friday night. On the plus side, Versus and NBC have tagged this as the series to watch in the East, so the first 6 games will be televised nationally on either Versus or NBC.

If anyone wants to think of the first round as a matchup that's been decades in the making, "But as I'm sure you've noticed, it has been 19 years since the Caps and Flyers met and 20 years since the Caps last eliminated Philadelphia from the playoffs."

CapsChick breaks down the offenses of both teams, and the conclusion is that, while distinct, they're pretty even. Philly comes in with their scoring spread among several players, which makes shutting down one or two guys less of a factor for Washington. It also means they don't have that one go-to guy in the clutch. The Caps offense is the opposite, revolving around Ovechkin and, to a lesser extent, Backstrom and Green. On paper if Philly shuts them down, the Caps will have trouble scoring. But we've seen this season that it's not that easy to shut down those guys. Bottom line, and I agree with Caps Chick, is that while both teams come into this series with different scoring makeups, they are pretty even.

And on defense, it sounds like both Schultz and Morrisonn might be playing in game 1 on Friday night. According to Tarik;

If one or both are unable to play, however, the Caps will have to make a recall, which would likely be Josef Boumedienne or maybe prospect Sami Lepisto. Just in case, it's possible one or both could be at practice tomorrow.

Finally, in anticipation of Rockin' the Red, or making it a Red Out, or whatever the Caps decide to call it for the playoffs, The Peerless takes a historical look at the color of blood and fire.